Super Bowl 50 ticket price averages a mere $5,461

Updated 8:41 pm, Monday, January 25, 2016

Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

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In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, workers install sod on the field at Levi's Stadium in preparation for the NFL's Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif., Monday, Jan. 11, 2016. Less than four weeks out from the Super Bowl, the field is nearly ready to be played on thanks to long days at Levi's Stadium by the crew working to install fresh sod and make every necessary tweak in regards to weather and other potential issues. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) less

In this photo taken with a fisheye lens, workers install sod on the field at Levi's Stadium in preparation for the NFL's Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif., Monday, Jan. 11, 2016. Less than four weeks out ... more

Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

Super Bowl 50 ticket price averages a mere $5,461

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Tickets for Super Bowl 50 are going for the highest prices in the game’s history, with an average resale price of $5,461 on StubHub.

A pair of lower club seats at Levi’s Stadium sold Monday for nearly $27,983 per ticket.

But here’s the most surprising twist: The inflated prices on the secondary market aren’t necessarily because of the Feb. 7 matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. Indeed, football fans might have one more thing to blame on the Silicon Valley, which is hosting the Super Bowl for the first time since 1985.

“San Francisco is an incredibly wealthy market,” said Chris Leyden, a content analyst with online-ticket reseller SeatGeek of New York. “There are a lot of people with disposable incomes. There’s a lot of demand in the Bay Area.”

Location, location, location. The face value of tickets for the game at Levi’s Stadium are reportedly between $500 and $1,600, but on SeatGeek, asking prices range from $3,320 to $12,100, Leyden said.

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The range was similar on StubHub, based in San Francisco. Spokesman Cameron Papp said the average price was more than $1,200 more per ticket than last year, when the Patriots beat the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Ariz., and more than $2,900 more than Super Bowl XLVIII in New Jersey in 2014.

The least expensive ticket sold cost $1,222 for an upper sideline seat.

Super Bowl tickets are pricey because demand is high, and supply is tightly controlled by the NFL. Of the 75,000 seats available, 5 percent go to the host 49ers, 34 percent are divided among NFL teams, 25 percent go to the league office, and 17.5 percent go to the AFC and NFC champions.

Super Bowl 50 tickets are in greater demand locally because the Bay Area is already a popular tourist destination and it has a relatively new stadium, Papp said.

About 29 percent of ticket sales have come from California, compared with 6 percent for Colorado and 5 percent for North Carolina, although Papp said that should change as the Broncos and Panthers start releasing tickets and their fans firm up travel plans.

StubHub has rented part of the Great America amusement park on game day because the league requires paper tickets to be distributed to buyers. StubHub customers also will be able to ride some roller coasters before the game.

Prices on secondary markets like StubHub or SeatGeek for sporting events generally drop close to game time, so savvy ticket buyers can wait for last-minute deals.

Still, that might not be the case for Super Bowl 50.

“It’s going to be different than any other year,” Papp said. “The market is going to fluctuate a lot, but I wouldn’t expect as significant a drop as in years past.”